but John Mellencamp rocks much harder.  

Rain on the Scarecrow

I've always though that Rain on the Scarecrow would make a great campaign song, much better than "Small Town" at least.  I imagine the lyrics have something to do with why it's not used. Like a fucked up Wizard of Oz, the whole thing take on a special meaning if you understand what's being said.

First they came for the scarecrow's, then the tinmen, and now even the wizards are having a hell of a time finding work like they used to. Mellencamp rocks.

Some of my favorites for the 4th of July.

Jackie Brown

Jackie Brown

Mellencamp's an overlooked treasure who's written lots of great political songs that've been overlooked in favor of fluff for the campaign trail.

Two of my recent favorites.

Walk Tall

So be careful in what you believe in
There's plenty to get you confused
And in this land called paradise
You must walk in many men's shoes
Bigotry and hatred are enemies to us all
Grace, mercy and forgiveness
Will help a man walk tall

Walk Tall
And one that has actually been picked up by one of the presidential candidates, John Edwards.

Our Country

And poverty could be just another ugly thing
and bigotry would be seen only as obscene
and the ones who run this land
help the poor and common man
this is our country

From the east coast to the west coast
down the dixie highway back home
this is our country

The dream is still alive
someday it will come true
and this country
it belongs to folks like me and you
so let the voice of freedom
sing out through this land
this is our country

Our Country

My embed isn't working, but I've linked to Youtubes of all the songs.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

I envy you your optimism, Bob.  I just alternate between despondency and rage, and there's not a whole lot of hope in the mix.  I wish I could be optimistic again.

I can't be optimistic the day after Scooter's sentence was commuted and a week after the Supreme Court has shown us that it is, indeed, and now more than ever before, a tool of a corrupt cabal.

I'll just keep scroogling for French real estate in some little village that wants a gentle German bakermeister and a crazy American lady who plants a vegetable garden in the front yard.  And every time another person asks "Oh, you haven't gotten Heinz to become an American citizen yet?" I'll answer the same as always: "I'm not THAT crazy."

I called 911 a week ago to report that it sounded like my neighborhood was being bombed.  They told me it was fireworks... to celebrate the completion of the new Childrens' Hospital.  How perfect to celebrate the event with something that injures and kills so many children every year.  

I adore fireworks, the professional kind, but it's like a little black cocktail dress, not appropriate for EVERY event.

Karen in Austin

'tis strange I should be old and neither wise nor valiant. From "The Maid's Tragedy" by Beaumont & Fletcher

You would if you were able to visit the US or Europe during the 1800's to see what life was like. We have it so much better than they did.

Life for whom? Life as an aristocrat in Europe in the 1800s could be very nice - especially for those able to winter here in Nice, bringing a crowd of servants to look after their every need. Life was really tough for peasants and the unemployed. Such huge gaps still exist - see the recent diary showing the top 0.1% getting richer still.

The point is not - are things in general better than they were in 1800? But rather, have the benefits of progress been fairly divided - between nations and between members of specific nations? Clearly not and in the richest nation in the world the gap is growing and was already appalling; those few at the very top having incredible wealth, the many at the bottom often unable to afford basic health care - see Sicko.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.

I'd like not to believe it, but I'm worried that you're right.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

I made an ostensibly erudite comment here, and it showed up on my browser, but it seems to have disappeared.  Which god have i offended, or what button did i wrongly push?

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

Here's KOs closing quote:

It is nearly July 4th, Mr. Bush, the commemoration of the moment we Americans decided that rather than live under a King who made up the laws, or erased them, or ignored them--or commuted the sentences of those rightly convicted under them--we would force our independence, and regain our sacred freedoms.

We of this time--and our leaders in Congress, of both parties--must now live up to those standards which echo through our history: Pressure, negotiate, impeach--get you, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Cheney, two men who are now perilous to our Democracy, away from its helm.

For you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task. You need merely achieve a very low threshold indeed. Display just that iota of patriotism which Richard Nixon showed, on August 9th, 1974.

Resign.

And give us someone--anyone--about whom all of us might yet be able to quote John Wayne, and say, "I didn't vote for him, but he's my president, and I hope he does a good job."

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia

I have a problems with the tone of Olberman's piece. For instance

The crisp matter-of-fact acknowledgement that we have survived, even though for nearly two centuries now, our Commander-in-Chief has also served, simultaneously, as the head of one political party and often the scourge of all others.

The President is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, not of all Americans. Something that seems to be lost on TV anchors (remember Dan Rathe? "He's my commander-in-chief. All he has to do is tell me where to line up and I'll do it") At least some people have started to see how absurd this is (but note that's from January 2007 - kinda late if you ask me, wait for Bush to become a lame duck to say he's not the commander in chief of civilians).

But, then again, there's this

I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war.

I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people, a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.

I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient.

I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons, and sisters and daughters, and friends and neighbors.

I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely-motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but to stifle dissent.

I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought.

I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents.

I accuse you of handing part of this Republic over to a Vice President who is without conscience, and letting him run roughshod over it.

And I accuse you now, Mr. Bush, of giving, through that Vice President, carte blanche to Mr. Libby, to help defame Ambassador Joseph Wilson by any means necessary, to lie to Grand Juries and Special Counsel and before a court, in order to protect the mechanisms and particulars of that defamation, with your guarantee that Libby would never see prison, and, in so doing, as Ambassador Wilson himself phrased it here last night, of becoming an accessory to the obstruction of justice.

There, that's (part of) why Bush should be impeached. It's kinda sad that it has to be something as minor as Scooter Libby that gets everyone finally fired up, but like they say "it's the straw that broke the camel's back".

Unfortunately, Olberman omits the illegal wiretaps, the violations of international law, waging illegal law of aggression, breaking the geneva convention, authorising torture... Olberman is actually giving Bush an out when he says has handed over the Republic to Cheney, and the only thing that he explicitly accuses Bush of is of mishandling the war on Iraq. If it had been "successful" would he be ranting like this?

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?

The macro is ((youtube video_id))

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?